


Farewell

by joonfired



Series: Star Wars Episode IX: A New Order of Balance [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, I'm Sorry, POV Finn (Star Wars), POV Poe Dameron, POV Rey (Star Wars), POV Third Person Limited, Poe Dameron Needs A Hug, Post-Canon, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars - Freeform, Star Wars episode IX - Freeform, farewell princess, guilty Poe Dameron, the passing of Leia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 07:51:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13336731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joonfired/pseuds/joonfired
Summary: The passing of Leia as dealt with by Rey and Ben, Finn and Rose, and Poe and Kaydel.





	Farewell

**Author's Note:**

> Short prequel to my Episode IX fic, Balance.

**1 | Rey & Ben**

**Rey felt the** shift in the Force. It was the same sensation of mingled peace and purpose she had known when Master Luke left the universe behind. Except this time, it was General Leia’s passing that surged through the young woman, waking her from an already troubled slumber.

She sat up, her vision blurring in the dim light as tears sprang into hot life and rolled heavy down her cheeks. Her chest tightened with grief, and only once she sensed the muffled, blanketing snap of her Force-powered connection to Ben Solo, did Rey realize that not all the grief she felt belonged to her.

Dark eyes filled with haunted emotions met hers across the room where Ben sat shrouded in darkness. His gaze was raw and open, nearly the same as when she’d last seen him kneeling in the abandoned control room of the rebel base on Crait.

“I’m sorry,” Rey whispered, her voice shaking.

Despite all the confliction she had towards the wayward Knight, she knew exactly how he felt about his mother. It was a connection she had only started to understand herself with the royal general, one that was now gone for both of them.

Almost as soon as her words left her mouth, Ben flickered and vanished, the sounds of reality snapping back around her. Rey blinked and wiped at her eyes, wet, salty streaks smearing across her cheeks onto the back of her hand. Ben’s grief still echoed in her heart, tinged with a final hint of despairing rage.

 

 

**2 | Finn & Rose**

**The universe seemed** cruel to Finn. After all they had accomplished and sacrificed, even still the general was taken from them by what seemed a random, selfish act of nature. Rey told him that she had sensed great peace in Leia’s passing, but that didn’t ease the ache in his heart as he stood by the funeral pyre for the general.

Orange and red flames leapt high into the night, draping the princess-general’s body in a fiery shroud. Her hands rested gracefully across her heart and her features were serene, like she was merely sleeping. But her spirit was gone, leaving behind nothing but a hollow shell.

As if she could sense his tangled emotions, Rose laced her fingers through Finn’s. He glanced down and met her teary gaze, her features smudging behind the tears of his own. He returned her grip with a grateful squeeze, and together they said their final goodbyes to the woman who had given them both a purpose in the universe.

 

 

**3 | Poe & Kaydel**

**After the pyre** , in the gray, early hours of morning, Poe was still awake.

His heart was heavy with a mess of grief, anger, and guilt . . . the latter two directed towards himself. For, in a way, Leia’s death was his fault. If he hadn’t been so focused on destroying just _one_ Dreadnought, the Resistance fleet would have had escaped with enough fighters to counter the TIE attack that had injured the general.

She had recovered from her almost-death, yes, but had never fully regained her strength. And as the months passed, when they set up a new base on the edge of the Outer Rim, she’d only grown weaker. He hadn’t paid attention to the signs, but now Poe realized he should have seen this moment coming.

And in the end, it was his fault. He had killed Leia.

Kaydel Connix found him where he sat on the floor in one of the dead-end halls of the ancient, sprawling city the Rebellion had almost finished converting into a base. He’d been here since the pyre, desperate to hide somewhere no one would easily find him . . . and yet the newly-appointed Captain had managed to discover his whereabouts.

She sat down next to him and Poe was careful not to look at her, his hair hanging limp in his tear-swollen eyes. He took a quiet breath that still managed to be shaky, his sense of self-deprecation heightening in the presence of one of those who had supported his mutinous decisions three months ago.

“This isn’t your fault, you know,” Kaydel said, her voice carrying a thick accent of past tears. She sniffed once, reaching up to wipe at her eyes.

Poe sighed, tipping his head back to rest it against the metal surface of the wall behind him. He closed his eyes, feeling another wave of tears threatening to crest inside him. He didn’t deserve her false comfort or to believe the lie she offered him. It _was_ his fault, as was the fact that the Rebellion was so decimated.

“I mean, it’s not just your fault,” Kaydel continued. “It’s mine, too.”

Poe rolled his head against the wall to look at her, and she frowned at him.

“You weren’t the only one who mutinied against Holdo,” she reminded him, the emotion in her eyes fierce. “You’re not the only one walking around with guilt on their shoulders.”

He hadn’t thought about that. He’d been so caught up in his own actions and the consequences they’d brought that he hadn’t remembered that Kaydel and others had supported his decision. He might be the leader of their failed mutiny, but that didn’t make him the only participant.

“What we did was wrong,” Kaydel said, swallowing hard. “But we’re still here. We’ve got our second chance ready for us to take it, which is why Leia didn’t kick us out of the Rebellion . . . or worse. She believed in us even after we betrayed her.”

“Is this why you came looking for me?” Poe asked, a sliver of levity cutting through the gloom inside him as he crooked a small, wry smirk at Kaydel. “To yell at me?”

“Someone has to,” Kaydel replied, a smile of her own pulling at the edges of her mouth, chasing her grief away for a moment.

Poe snorted, leaning forward and pushing his rumpled hair out of his features.

“You can say that again,” he drawled. He glanced at Kaydel again, appreciation sparking towards her. “Thanks . . . for yelling at me. I needed that.”

“We all do at some point or another in our lives,” she said, and then got to her feet. “C’mon. Leia wouldn’t want us moping about.”

“Hell no,” Poe laughed softly, stretching up from his position and wincing at the tight muscles he’d gotten from sitting for so long. “She’d want us to keep moving forward.”

Kaydel nodded. “And so we will.”

“Yes, we will,” Poe agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling a lot of Carrie Fisher and Princess/General Leia feels and thinking about how all the characters would have initially reacted to her passing. Also wanted to give a little insight to how I want Poe's character arc to go after his actions in The Last Jedi which, let's be honest, weren't the most heroic AT ALL. I love Poe to the stars and beyond, but he really needs some good development after what he pulled in TLJ. So, that's why I wrote this . . . plus a little of my Reylo feels in the beginning, too, because again, let's be honest, there would be a ForceTime connection between Rey and Ben when and/or after Leia passed.


End file.
